Youth for Western Civilization Dismantled at Towson University

Imagine 2050 Staff • Mar 29, 2012

According to reports on Tuesday, the Youth for Western Civilization (YWC) chapter at Towson University, Maryland, lost its status as an officially recognized student group. While YWC is an already contentious organization known for its flagrant white nationalist tendencies, its Towson chapter was, perhaps, its most bombastic expression. Known for public events such as “Straight Pride Day,” the Towson YWC has done nothing if not put itself in the public eye.

But some of its more zealous membership crossed into unspoken (but not unintended) territory when they gratuitously scrawled “White Pride” in chalk across Towson’s quad—the event that lit the fuse of the YWC chapter’s demise. In an article written for The Towerlight, Towson’s school newspaper, the formal reason given for rescinding the group’s status was the resignation of its faculty adviser, without whom YWC cannot be said have “official” recognition.

Professor Richard Vatz, the former adviser, expressed his concerns to the Townson YWC’s leadership in a letter. Officially ending his affiliation with the group, he stated that the organization’s “frightening rhetoric” and unsophisticated vehemence are “not how impressive and serious conservatives argue their case”—a seemingly cut and dry end for an organization that practically begged to be ousted.

But Matthew Heimbach, the Townson YWC’s former president, had a different interpretation. Malingering in the “abuse” that YWC has purportedly endured, the outspoken student claimed that a menacing “they” had “put so much pressure on our advisor [sic] and that caused him to drop out.” This, of course, says nothing of the immense negative attention that he and the Towson chapter brought to their organization.

In fact, Heimbach might be the worst that’s ever happened to Youth for Western Civilization (YWC).

Known to don a Confederate flag t-shirt while claiming that his organization isn’t racist, controversy seems to follow this young conservative with a waning future. First, there was his public affiliation with the League of the South, an organization that has called slavery “God-ordained” and stated that “the Negroes are better off today because of it.” Then he published a blog, little more than a threnody for Afrikaner domination in South Africa, featuring a photo that urged people to “Hang Nelson Mandela and all ANC terrorists.”

If the chalking represents the last nail, Heimbach was at least building the coffin as of last year.

We tend to use the term “useful idiot” in a positive sense, that is, in the idiot’s being useful for the cause they champion; but perhaps there’s a coinciding negative sense as well, seeing as Heimbach has been goaded into doing more damage to YWC than most of “the Liberals.” So with that in mind, if we might be permitted to say: “You’re a real mensch, Heimbach! Keep up the good work!”